Performance racing encompasses all areas of the sport of racing that includes drag racing, stock car racing, speedboat racing and such. Performance racing has become one of the major spectator sports in the United States and fans from all walks of life share in the sport both as spectators and participants. There are basically two types of participants--amateur and professional. It is the fact that amateurs can participate that has made performance racing such a popular sport. It should be noted that there is little difference between the amateur and professional: the real difference being that the amateur has other employment besides racing which helps fund his/her sport.
Simply put "performance" in performance racing means maximizing the horsepower from a given `stock` engine. There are numerous methods, techniques, additions, etc. that are used to improve horsepower. These techniques range from boring out cylinders, increasing the compression ratio, modifying the inlet and exhaust manifolds (tuning), modifying pistons, changing fuels from gasoline to alcohol, etc. Probably the most popular technique for improving horsepower involves the addition of Nitrous Oxide--N.sub.2 O to the engine fuel-air system. Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas--used by the dental industry as a anesthetic) provides oxygenation to regular fuel. Essentially the oxygen radical releases more readily to oxygenate the fuel then does the O.sub.2 molecule in regular "air." It would be the same as injecting pure oxygen into the engine; however, N.sub.2 O is much safer. Pure oxygen in direct contact with hydrocarbons spontaneously reacts (explodes); whereas, N.sub.2 O and fuel requires a source of ignition.
There are several techniques used to add nitrous-oxide to the fuel-air system in an engine, although all of the techniques share a common mode. Essentially, the common mode is the engine's regular throttle or carburetor system coupled with a technique, method, or device to inject a metered combination of fuel and nitrous-oxide in to the engine, whenever the driver desires more horsepower (greater speed) from the engine. Throughout this disclosure, the term ancillary fuel will mean that fuel added to the engine for on-demand increased horsepower.
One method involves injecting a metered mix of ancillary fuel and nitrous-oxide into each cylinder on demand. Basically this method is simple fuel injection--a well known technique. It is very complex for the rank amateur to install such a system on a stock engine, because injection ports must be added to each cylinder on the engine. The addition of injection ports involves complex machining and places this approach out of the means of most amateur participants.
The popular technique involves the addition of a spray nozzle or spray bar system beneath the regular throttle body or carburetor between the throttle body or carburetor and the intake manifold to provide the mix of ancillary fuel and N.sub.2 O. The spray bar device is made up of two conduits each with a series of apertures mounted in a frame or plate (about 1/2-inch thick). One conduit is connected to a source of nitrous-oxide and the other conduit is connected to the source of fuel. Whenever the race driver desires increased horsepower, he/she presses a button in the driving compartment that opens a series of solenoid valves, which in turn pass fuel and nitrous-oxide to the spray bar pair. The fuel-nitrous-oxide mixture is then drawn through the intake manifold and into the engine cylinders where it is burnt.
The overall mixture of nitrous-oxide and fuel (provided by the spray bar) and air and fuel (provided by the carburetor) is critical to engine performance. The mixture must be properly metered and mixed to its stoichiometric peak. (In fact, this is true with fuel/air and fuel/nitrousoxide injection systems.) In order to achieve the stoichiometric peak, the plurality of apertures in the spray bar plate must be carefully sized and positioned. One of the more popular spray bar assemblies sprays the ancillary fuel orthogonally to the air/fuel flow coming from the carburetor while spraying the nitrous-oxide almost in-line with the fuel/air mixture and directly across the ancillary fuel flow.
Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,241 discloses a Nitrous Oxide Plate System, which shows the nitrous oxide (oxidizer) bar above the fuel bar. The nitrous oxide, like all the known prior art, is sprayed downwards from an emitter port or aperture towards a fuel emitter port or aperture. The actual angle from vertical that the emitter is positioned axially about the bar is not disclosed or claimed. The angle that the fuel emitter is axially positioned about the bar is shown as being orthogonal to the general air/fuel mix flow. Wood uses a minimum of four specially formed emitter ports; whereas, the instant invention uses plurality of laser drilled circular apertures or emitters for greater mixing. The fuel and oxidizer spray bars are shown, as in the prior art, to be touching each other.
Grant, U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,418 discloses a Dual Stage Nitrous Oxide and Fuel Injection Plate, which also shows the nitrous oxide bar above the fuel bar. Additionally, Grant discloses a "crossed set" of spray bar pairs. The nitrous oxide, like Wood and all known prior art, is sprayed downwards from an emitter port or aperture towards a fuel emitter port or aperture. Again, like Wood the actual angle is not disclosed or claimed. Like Wood, the fuel angle is shown as orthogonal to the general air/fuel mix flow. Like the prior art, the spray bar pairs touch or nearly touch each other.
Other prior art found by the inventors shows or discloses various fuel nozzles in which fuel and oxidizer are mixed and sprayed into the manifold. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,776 (Wood et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,476 (Grant), U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,099 (Patrick), and U.S. Pat. No. D 420,364 (the current inventors--Fischer and Jureski).
Through experimentation the inventors have shown that the above spray bar system can be improved by careful positioning of the apertures. In fact, the best mix of ancillary fuel and N.sub.2 O is obtained when the ancillary fuel flows upward, and counter to, the regular fuel/air mix provided by the carburetor or throttle body. Thus, the inventors have discovered and made an improvement to existing technology that drives the stoichiometric mix of ancillary fuel/N.sub.2 O to its peak performance point.